Wayne State to give 10 students a free medical degree

Ten students are about to get a big helping hand toward their dream of becoming a doctor — Wayne State University will announce today it will pay for the complete education of 10 students each year from undergraduate to medical school.

The move is aimed at getting talented students from low-income backgrounds into and through med school and eventually to work on addressing issues around health disparities.

"I want Wayne State to be known as the place for training biomedical scientists and MDs," Wayne State President M. Roy Wilson told the Free Press in an exclusive interview. "We want kids who can go anywhere, but choose to go to Wayne."

The idea is built, in part, off Wilson's own academic career.

Wilson, a doctor who specialized in research on glaucoma and blindness in populations from the Caribbean to West Africa, applied a year early to Harvard's medical school.

He got a letter back, placing him on the waiting list.

"It wasn't quite a guarantee that I'd get in, but it said I was a really strong student and they wanted me to finish up my undergraduate degree," Wilson said. He did get in and graduated with his MD.

"Medical school is so difficult to get into, even for people with good credentials," he said. "Knowing that I was in early meant I didn't have some of the anxiety some of my classmates had. It allowed me to take classes like philosophy and advanced English that really helped me be a better person and a better physician ultimately.

"Students who are in this program will really be able to emphasize learning and not competition with other students."

The program, Wayne Med-Direct, will include four years of paid undergraduate tuition, four years of paid undergraduate room and board costs in university housing and four years of paid medical school tuition, a total savings of $251,000.

It will admit 10 new students each year starting next summer. The university is accepting applications until Jan. 15.

To get into the program, a student will have to have a minimum 3.5 GPA and 1340 SAT or 30 ACT score, be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident and be an incoming freshman. Preference will be given to students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds who are also interested in studying health disparities. It is open to students from anywhere.

"We expect a large part of each cohort will be underrepresented minorities," Wilson said. "That will also help us in terms of diversity in the medical school over time."

Ambika Mathur, dean of Wayne State’s Graduate School and one of the architects of Wayne Med-Direct, will help oversee the administration of specialized programming for the cohort to ensure the students are equipped for success once they reach the School of Medicine.

“Incoming freshman who are admitted to the program will arrive on campus in the summer to participate in summer enrichment courses focused on chemistry, biology, physics and writing,” said Mathur. “In addition to their early arrival on campus, Wayne Med-Direct cohorts will participate in seminars, workshops and hands-on research and clinical training in the School of Medicine throughout their undergraduate careers.”

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @reporterdavidj